Setting out innovation guidelines in business: road map towards a fully innovating culture

Recommendations to senior management to give their companies an innovative cultur

Sequence of thinking and acting in strategy making

This paper gives an answer to the continuing emergent-deliberate debate. Thinking and acting are two outstanding features of this controversy. What is needed in the field is a framework that can explain under what circumstances each of these two features takes place along the strategy-making process. The focus of the paper is on the sequence of thinking and acting in the strategy-making process. A framework is developed to show how thinking co-evolves with action in a succession of strategic activities. Within boundaries, strategic activities are carried forward by social automatic behaviour, following a set pattern. Yet, when an action crosses a certain threshold, a different condition of awareness is achieved. Similarly, thought can cross an equivalent threshold, giving rise to consciousness. Either condition enhances the organization's ability to make changes in the direction of its strategic activity.strategy-making process; strategic activities;

Strategic thinking: Strategy as a shared framework in the mind of managers.

Even though most academics,business people and consultants recognize that the purpose of strategy formulation can no longer be to generate strategic plans,critics of formal strategic planning offer little guidance on how to overcome its limitations and rarely address CEOs 'concerns about turning strategic vision into an operational reality. This paper proposes a managerial approach to strategic thinking and strategy formulation which takes both process and content issues into account.Strategic thinking is understood as a deliberate and creative process as well as the resulting state of mind.Strategy is presented as shared framework which guides managers 'daily actions.The approach is developed in a way that attempts to respond to CEOs 'concerns regarding the need to manage by strategy in today 's rapidly changing environment.Key building blocks of the new approach to strategy formulation are presented.Some initial empirical tests provide support for this approach.The framework outlined here seeks to contribute to top management 's efforts to build a shared understanding of strategic issues and encourage actions at the front line which are consistent with the strategy pursued by the firm.strategy

Dual scale flow during vacuum infusion of composites: experiments and modelling

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorVacuum-assisted resin infusion has emerged in recent years as one of the most promising techniques to manufacture fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites. This open mold process uses vacuum as the driving force to infitrate resin through a bagged fiber preform, leading to reduced tooling costs, as compared with the traditional closed mold process (resin transfer molding). In addition, large components can be produced with this technique. However, manufacturing defect-free components by means of vacuum-assisted resin infusion is not guaranteed due to complexity of the infiltration process and to the intricacies associated with the presence of a exible bag. In addition, the final thickness of components manufactured by this process is not constant due to both the exible bag and to the stress partition between the fiber bed and the uid, leading to a greater thickness near the inlet port than near the vent. This thesis is a contribution to understand the phenomena that control vacuum-assisted resin infusion at the mesoscopic and microscopic scales. The mesoscopic behavior was studied by means of an experimental set-up allows the use of a distribution medium on top of the fiber preform to account for in-plane and through-the thickness infiltration. Fluid pressure was measured by means of pressure gages at different locations and the evolution of the outof- plane displacement of the vacuum bag (due to changes in the fabric compaction) was continuously measured by means of the digital image correlation. In addition, infusion at the microscale was analyzed by means of in situ infiltration experiments carried out in the synchrotron beam to study the mechanisms of microfluid flow and void transport within a fiber tow by means of synchrotron X-ray computer tomography using an apparatus designed and built for this purpose. This information was used to develop a level set based model to simulate fluid flow and fabric compaction during vacuum-assisted infusion. Fluid infusion through the fiber preform was modeled using Darcy's equations for the fluid flow through a porous media. The stress partition between the uid and the fiber bed was included by means of Terzaghi's effective stress theory. These equations are only valid in the infused region and both regions (dry and wet) were separated by introducing a level set function in the partial differential equation which is defined at any given time as the distance to the flow front. Finally, the model predictions were validated against the experimental results.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de MaterialesPresidente: Ion Aurrekoetxea Narbarte.- Secretario: Jon Mikel Molina Aldareguia.- Vocal: Drapier Sylvai

A level set approach for the analysis of flow and compaction during resin infusion in composite materials

Fluid flow and fabric compaction during vacuum assisted resin infusion (VARI) of composite materials was simulated using a level set-based approach. Fluid infusion through the fiber preform was modeled using Darcy’s equations for the fluid flow through a porous media. The stress partition between the fluid and the fiber bed was included by means of Terzaghi’s effective stress theory. Tracking the fluid front during infusion was introduced by means of the level set method. The resulting partial differential equations for the fluid infusion and the evolution of flow front were discretized and solved approximately using the finite differences method with a uniform grid discretization of the spatial domain. The model results were validated against uniaxial VARI experiments through an [0]8 E-glass plain woven preform. The physical parameters of the model were also independently measured. The model results (in terms of the fabric thickness, pressure and fluid front evolution during filling) were in good agreement with the numerical simulations, showing the potential of the level set method to simulate resin infusio